It seems ridiculous to me that Bagwell and Raines aren’t in, but the BBWAA, as a group, seems to have issues with pharmaceuticals for both of them.

Since Bagwell can’t prove a negative and he played during a time when steroid use was rampant, he obviously can’t be trusted as a good person. Sure, he never raped children or women, but we can’t say with 100% certainty that he never injected himself with a steroid. Thus, he’ll have to wait a bit.

As for Raines, his drug use is more documented, but the last time I checked, cocaine is not considered a performance enhancer, so it must be some sort of morality clause that I’m not aware of. Mickey Mantle drank himself to death, and there are plenty of other Hall of Famers who didn’t exactly treat their bodies as temples, but somehow Raines’ cocaine use is being held against him more than, say, Paul Molitor’s was.

But congratulations to Barry Larkin for being an excellent baseball player and for also being a good person (as far as we know).